Chapter 31: Hero
My little soundtrack for the chapter: The Sun Song by Michael Tolcher
Dark drew a slow, exploratory breath. Small clips of electricity were still jumping between his veins, cluttering his lungs. He pulled his gaze up to the ceiling where Shira had disappeared. He was no longer able to hear her movements above. She was probably well on her way along the path he'd explained to reach Gorudo's office. She had no idea what she was getting into.
He rolled his eyes back to the device locked on his left wrist. He reached out to explore it with his opposite hand, careful not to jiggle the volatile circuitry. His fingers probed the sides of the unit, searching for buttons or any type of code lock. The surface was remarkably smooth and featureless, but his fingernail finally discovered a small notch on the underside of the device. He very slowly turned his wrist over so he could see what he was feeling. It was a keyhole.
"Lovely," he grimaced.
A combination lock he could have decoded without moving, but for this, he was going to need a pick. Finding one would hardly be a big deal, if not for that fact that the device on his wrist was rigged to tase him every time he moved. He glanced around the empty cell to the bag Shira had left on the chair in the corner. There had to be something useful in there.
Eight feet never felt so far away.
He gritted his teeth and slowly shifted to a kneeling position, holding his wrist very still against the floor. His muscles buzzed in warning, recommending that he stay still, but he didn't have the time. That hot-headed amateur was going to get herself in serious trouble up there unless he made it to her soon. Ever so slowly, he lifted his palms upward.
About three inches off the ground, the motion sensor in the device went off and a jolt of power pummeled his body. His frayed nerves split under this new assault. He jerked into a fetal position and glued his wrist back to the ground. Another zap punished him for the sudden movement, provoking a deep-throated outburst that was half growl and half scream.
His senses scattered into a blizzard of electricity and pain. "Not cool," he rasped. He fought back a mad half-formed impulse to smash the device into the floor until either he or it simply broke. Sweating, he dug his forehead into the floor and tried to regain focus. She'd left him like this. He'd helped her, and she'd left him on the floor with a torture device on his arm. A fierce and lonely anger finally kicked in.
He locked his dazed vision on the chair in the corner. Just a little willpower, and he'd get there. He could always slug her one after he saved her life. He controlled his breathing, put strength back in his good arm, and pushed himself slowly back to a sitting position. In slow motion, he rose to a crouch and braced himself to step forward. The moment his foot lifted from the ground, the sensor activated. The shock threw him back to his knees. His vision blurred dangerously. Being tased once was one thing, but even his body had its limits before permanent damage took hold. His bones ached like they'd been submerged in ice. He knew no further pain would come if he just laid still. Man, did he ever want to lie still.
*Daisuke…* His mind reached out on pure reflex for the answering subconscious presence that he knew could center him, make him concentrate on what he knew was right. His pain-shrouded nerves overwhelmed his pride at the moment. He needed contact, reinforcement from the other self that always added to what he was when he couldn't. *…Listen, Daisuke… I know there's a lot going on with you, but I could use a little moral support here. Just for a minute.*
He knelt very still, every nerve focused and searching. His thoughts sobered second by second as his call won no answer. He'd known deep down that it wouldn't. It pissed him off that he'd tried anyway. Daisuke wouldn't respond. He didn't want to respond. Dark slammed his good fist into the floor as if to break apart the whole place around him. That crazy woman was going to have to take what was coming to her. He couldn't do this. Damn it all, he was completely on his own and he couldn't do this. Not any of it. Not alone, not anymore.
He took deep breaths to keep himself from falling any further apart. "Pathetic. I'm being pathetic," he barked at himself. The words filled the silent cell, but bravado wasn't sealing up the wound. Pride could only carry him so far. "Oh, man. You're hearing all of this, aren't you, Risa?" he realized aloud. He chuckled dryly. He wondered how much of this crazy situation she would be able to understand through her one-sided oral link. "Sorry. I'm probably making you worried. Honestly, I hope you've given up listening already." It was a boldfaced lie. He wanted to believe she was still out there listening, as pointless as it might be. He needed to think that she, at least, hadn't changed. It was way too much pressure to put on one person, to redeem his whole confidence in humanity. When had he started needing her so much?
He thought about her dutifully monitoring his struggles from wherever she was, patiently observing him, even though he was only letting her see part of the picture. That scenario was nothing new. Since he'd met her, she was always waiting for him to give her an opening, waiting for some way to be allowed to help him.
She had no idea how much she already was.
A spark of passion lit up his dark train of thought. He was free, after all. He had his own body, with all the exhilaration and loneliness that came with it. He was done being afraid of it. No one else could control him, not anymore.
And if he wanted to save his pain-in-the-ass captor from herself, he could do as he pleased. This flesh container wasn't going to stop him. And he didn't need to do it by himself. He refocused his frazzled muscles and rose, ever so slowly, to his feet. "So, Risa," he murmured, "I can't do my little inner monologue thing with Daisuke, so you're it now, okay?" He paused for a second, for the heck of it. "I'll take your silence for consent," he smirked. "I have a little idea. There's no way I can survive this going step by step. So I figure I may as well take it at once. Like ripping off a band-aid. Fun times! This may get a little loud, so keep your cool." He collected all his nerve, crouched, and launched his weight forward, diving across the room. The inevitable zap struck him as he left the ground, and an answering shock recoiled through him as he reacquainted himself with the floor. He shuddered and sucked in tight, wheezing breaths as his insides threatened to collapse. "Arg, not fun times," he amended hoarsely.
When he was able to see straight again, something silver came into focus. A victorious glint flashed in his eyes. He was nose to nose with the leg of Shira's chair. "Gotcha!" He reached up and grabbed her bag, pulling it down next to him. It took mere seconds to find what he needed. "Bobby pins. Such vanity for a soldier," he snickered breathlessly as he used his teeth to unbend the thin wire and snap it in half. Picking the lock took a matter of seconds. The offending device unlatched and dropped harmlessly to the floor.
He rolled over onto his back and laughed, first low and then louder, claiming victory over the malignant device. As his laughter finally wore off, he lay still for just a few more seconds. "I know," he murmured to his invisible audience. "It's time to go."
He got back to his feet, shaking off the last few tingles, and threw the deactivated taser bracelet into Shira's bag. Slinging it over his shoulder, he went back to the tile he'd fallen through and swung himself up into the ceiling. "Risa, if you're listening, try to get to the east side of the building. Just in case," he said as he jogged to the pillar and started climbing. "I have some catching up to do."
-oOoO0OoOo-
Shira looked around at the maze of vents, pipes, beams, and wires around her. There seemed to be a lot more clutter in the walls up at the top floors. That freak's directions had gotten her this far, but it seemed this was the part where he'd mentioned "freestyle climbing". She wished she'd gotten more detailed instructions before trapping him, but asking too many questions would have just tipped him off.
She took hold of one of the wooden beams that continued up and began climbing. She got up to the next floor and gratefully let herself off onto the horizontal surface to rest. It looked like she couldn't get any further up this way. She crouched and followed the narrow space next to her, looking for anything that might be the vent Dark mentioned. She finally did spot a huge tin shaft rising up at a steep angle. It had to be the air shaft, and it was certainly the only one she'd seen that was big enough to crawl through. She leaned around the shaft and studied it for a way in. "Silly me to forget my tinsnips," she muttered.
She climbed over the vent and kept walking until she saw an even larger tunnel. This one actually had a maintenance door on the side. She reached out to the latch and swung it sideways. The door came open.
"Easy as pie," she grinned, walking into the shaft. She didn't even notice the small security pad she walked past as she entered. She followed the shaft, which grew narrower, but stayed tall enough to walk through. There were even small LEDs planted along the route. This had to be the way they used for maintenance. Figured this building would have something like this. Dark had mentioned some fancy ventilation systems. She finally came to a vertical shaft rigged with a ladder and climbed it up a floor. The shaft split off there and didn't seem to rise any higher. She'd tried to count the floors on the way up, but seeing this made her sure. She was there. The top floor.
She made her way as stealthily as possible down the shaft, but Dark had a point when he said that vents were noisy, even hospitable ones like this. She finally saw a light filtering in up ahead and followed it. She crouched in front of the source and looked through the bars into the reception area of Gorudo's office. She could see the elevators and the secretary's desk. And as she watched, she saw Trap walk in and announce himself to the secretary.
She was just in time. She carefully made her way further along the tunnel and, sure enough, saw another light. She was about half way to it when she barely spotted a thin red line stretching like spiderweb across the shaft. She stopped before it and frowned at the small receiver on the wall next to it. Security? In the air shaft? Something didn't sit right in her stomach. Dark's description of Gorudo came back to her mind. "Paranoid. Possibly obsessive."
She lay on her back and shimmied, ever so carefully, under the light sensor. When she finally got to look down into Gorudo's office, she'd already missed some of the conversation. She leaned in close to the 2X3 foot panel set near the ceiling of Gorudo's huge penthouse office.
"Sir, with all respect, I can't do my job if you don't tell me what it is," Trap was telling the CEO across his massive desk.
"You're doing your job perfectly."
"My job was to summon and obtain the Black Wings. It's already here."
"Now, Trap, don't think I haven't been monitoring your little side research. I'm sure a smart man like you has realized by now that Dark is not the whole Black Wings. I appreciate your diligence. After all, curiosity is the foundation of science. Rest assured, you don't need to hunt anyone else down. My interest is only in Dark. The other angel is none of my concern. He has a history of…instability."
Why not just tell me this in the first place? Why keep it from me that Dark is here?"
"I wanted you focused on your task."
"But not Shira? It was fine to tell her?"
Gorudo leaned forward over his desk toward the stone-faced scientist. "Come on, now. We both know she's no scientist. It's you I need. I just wanted her for muscle. The project needed security. She needed to know, you didn't. I do hope her help didn't interfere with the accuracy of your data."
"She did her job," Trap said flatly.
Shira frowned down at them, careful to keep quiet as she watched. Was he actually defending her? He'd always seemed so fed up with her as an assistant.
"Alright," Trap said. "Since the research objectives have clearly altered, let's just be clear. You have Dark. Why bother to separate the boy's soul from the angel at all?"
Gorudo smirked. "Because Dark can only link to one soul at a time, of course."
Trap blinked. "What?"
"Which brings me to the other point I wanted to review with you. I have just a few modifications to this afternoon's procedure." He casually set a fat stapled document in front of the scientist.
Trap warily began looking through the file. His gaze darkened as he continued reading. "Why didn't you tell me about this before?" he demanded.
"You didn't need to know before."
"You're serious about this?"
"Oh, I'm always serious, Trap," Gorudo smiled darkly.
"Sir… I can't do this," he carefully took his voice down a notch, "This can't be done without a thorough record of your brain patterns, as well. I would need the same research I've been doing on the boy for the past nine days."
"Not to worry. I've filled that part in myself," Gorudo said, procuring a second envelope. "I had a second machine built and cloned the procedures you followed with the boy on myself. This should be everything you need." When Trap didn't respond, he continued, "You know how to isolate the angel. It should be a simple process to use the same technology to do the reverse."
"I don't really understand why you want to…combine with it," Trap said slowly.
Shira stared in disbelief. What the heck? Tension balled up in her chest as she thought through what they were saying. She reached out and touched the vent for support.
Something clicked inside the wall. There was a winding of gears, like something mechanical shifting, and suddenly the panel she was crouched in front of dropped out of the wall, clattering to the marble-tiled office floor. "What?" Shira gasped, staring out at Trap and Gorudo.
Both men were staring at her. Trap's expression was unreadable, but Gorudo's was unmistakable. The CEO yanked open his desk drawer and pulled out a pistol. "Trap, hit the alarm," he growled as he swung the barrel toward Shira and fired. She gasped and threw herself flat in the tunnel. The bullet went straight through the aluminum behind her. She could hardly believe he was actually just going to shoot her. Then again…it wasn't that hard to believe. Anyone paranoid enough to booby-trap his air vents from the inside was paranoid enough to shoot anyone he caught peeping.
Another shot came through the vent near her shoulder, grazing her jacket. A second later, the lights went out, along with all the lights in the ventilation shaft.
"I said the alarm, Trap!" Gorudo snarled.
"Sorry, sir. Wrong button," the scientist said, making fumbling noises with the switch panel on the wall.
"Get them back on, you imbecile!" A few more bullets flew helter-skelter through the metal around her.
"Trying, sir."
"Damn it, I'll do it myself," Gorudo snarled.
Shira didn't wait around. She turned back in the direction she'd come and ran for her life. A few moments later, the alarm went off. She could hear metal latches and motors grinding and spinning. Something heavy slammed up ahead of her.
"Crap," she breathed, her heart pounding out of her chest. She fumbled her way in the pitch black corridor, trying to feel her way forward with her feet and find the vent that would take her downward the way she'd come. After she was nearly sure she'd missed it, she came to a ridge on the floor. She knelt down and felt around to find a closed hatch. She yanked at it and kicked it, to no avail. No way…they'd locked her on this level? Did people seriously build security systems like this in real life?
She cursed and kept going down the now-unfamiliar tunnel. A tiny sound, like the sound of a camera flash charging, came from behind her. She spun around to see a small red light pointing straight at her. Combat training instinct kicked in and she threw herself to the floor. A beam of light shot out where she'd just been. The smell of burnt metallic fumes filled the air around her. No way. No freaking way. She was working for a psychopath. The device began adjusting its aim toward her new position.
At least it was slow. She made a run for it and strained to listen for more warning sounds amidst the distant blaring of the security alarms, the slamming of her feet on the metal vents, and her hammering pulse. The faster she went, the more searching lights she noticed, robotically tracking and aiming for her. They definitely hadn't been visible before. She was faster than them, if she just kept moving. She came to a fork in the tunnel. Down one leg, she could hear a keypad beep and a metal hatch slide away. Someone was coming.
She picked the other tunnel and ran for her life. This one was straight. The guard lasers had plenty of time to point and aim, and she had no choice but to run dead ahead. She gritted her teeth as one of them pointed straight at her from far ahead and charged up to fire. She threw her arms forward to guard her vitals, certain she was going to have to keep running with a nasty hole somewhere in her body.
However, the red tracking lights suddenly flickered off, as if all the power had gone out. She grimaced. Was something even worse coming for her? She kept running and finally spotted a large grate filtering in light in the distance. She ran for it with all she had, ready to deal with anything if it would get her out of this nightmarish shaft. Relief poured through her nerves as she reached it and kicked the grate with all her strength, charging through it in the same movement. It gave way, and bright natural light flooded her vision as she found herself…falling. She thought fast and flailed, managing to grab onto something sticking out of the wall a few feet down. She hung on for dear life while her eyes adjusted to the brightness around her.
Something was wrong. She could hear… cars. She looked down and found herself hanging 30 stories above the street, from the outside of the building. She screamed and grabbed onto the lamp she was hanging from for dear life. "Guess that freak wasn't kidding," she muttered in terror.
"Darn right I wasn't," A voice came from above her. She looked up tensely to find the angel standing at the mouth of the shaft she'd fallen from. He looked pale and out of breath, but he also looked confident, which brought back some of her senses.
"How did you get up here?" she gasped.
"Who do you think I am?" he smirked darkly. "Reach up for my hand." He lay flat on the tunnel floor and stretched his arm down toward her.
"There are lasers in there," she warned.
"I used your little toy to short out the electricity for the floor. It won't last forever, so grab on," he ordered.
"I…I can't hold on and reach at the same time," she gasped, gripping the lamp for all it was worth.
"Do it or fall. I thought you were trained for this stuff," Dark said.
"Look, buddy, I don't know what kind of training you do, but my arms aren't used to climbing 25 stories."
"I know," he said almost gently. "Just this one last thing, and you can rest. Reach up before your arms give out completely." He glanced past her and noticed the white van pulling up onto the sidewalk directly below them for the first time. So she was listening, he thought gratefully. She'd been with him all along. But not even the relatively soft landing of hitting the roof of the van instead of the street was going to be survivable from this height. He stretched his hand toward Shira and gave her a reassuring look. "I won't drop you."
Shira stared up at him, guilt blending with the fear in her eyes. She very slowly shifted her weight to what she thought was her stronger arm. Her muscles trembled in warning that they couldn't hold on. She tried anyway, reaching up for Dark's hand.
One of the bolts holding the lamp to the face of the building pulled loose. The fixture jerked to a 45 degree angle. Shira's hand slipped. Her fingertips barely grazed Dark's as she lost her grip and fell.
"Shira!" Dark shouted as she dropped away from him. Cursing, he scrambled to the edge and dove after her, grabbing onto her waist as they fell and pulling her in close to his chest.
"Oh God," her scream climbed back into her throat as they hurtled downward. "Aren't you supposed to be able to fly?" she shouted hopefully.
"Yeah, about that…" Dark called back regretfully over the roar of the wind. He looked at the ground coming toward them. He couldn't. He threw his wings wide, trying desperately to catch the wind and control it. The muscles shifted uncooperatively, folding against the pressure instead of channeling it. Needles shot through his back as the nerves began to go numb, like every other time. "I can't, Risa," he gasped. They were going to fall, hard, and he couldn't stop it.
The door to the van below them swung open and Risa ran out to the middle of the street, looking up at them as they hurtled toward her. She stared straight at him and raised her arms upward, like she was embracing the sun, then waved them down and up again. Fly, the unspoken command was there in her eyes and in the posture of her entire body. Confident, encouraging, certain. The same blindly trusting look she'd given him as they'd fallen from the school tower during the earthquake. Use them!
He set his gaze on her and threw his wings as wide as they would hold, pushing them, commanding them. He didn't believe in them, but she did, and damn it, he wasn't going to die folded up like a wounded sparrow. He'd rather go like a hawk hunting the earth.
A predator's resolve spread his feathers wide, pride and anger and determination replacing the blood in his veins. He was a creature of the sky. A phantom ruler of the winds. He would not be betrayed by them. He would not betray her faith in him. He'd made her cry for him once, and he refused to fail her again. She was all he had left.
Lavender eyes narrowed to fierce, violet gems as he clutched Shira tightly and pulled up. He ignored the numb spasms. "You're mine. Do as I ask," he whispered to his rebellious limbs.
The air tugged up beneath him like a boat catching sail. The sudden force made him gasp, but he held onto it for all he was worth, straightening his shaking muscles taut against the wind and hauling into it.
The angel's stomach slowly floated back into place. He breathlessly sought his bearings and looked around. The windows beside him were whizzing by horizontally instead of vertically. A familiar feeling buzzed through him. He was in control. He banked right and circled back toward Risa. His muscles strained in response and held him as he turned and flew straight to her. With a few sturdy beats, he slowed himself down and landed a few feet in front of her.
They stared at each other in breathless silence as Shira folded to her knees and passed out between them.
"How do they feel?" she finally asked with a quiet smile.
"Like they're on fire," Dark winced, returning her grin shakily. He looked at her like he really didn't care about any of that right now.
"Dark, you're staring at me," she laughed, tears finally streaming down her cheeks.
He swallowed. His eyes were a rich amethyst that couldn't leave hers. He didn't have the words. He never did, with her.
He closed the space between them and pulled her in close, unable to speak. She locked her arms around him in return, tight enough to cut off his breath. He clenched his eyes and soaked in her presence. There was no way to thank her or explain how much she meant to him right now.
"You used your wings," she half-cried into his shoulder.
"You were my wings," he said tightly, so low she almost didn't hear him. Her slender hands dug tighter around his back.
He lingered there for a few more seconds, as long as he could. "I have to go back."
"You have to go back," she agreed, sadly.
"You'll take care of Shira? She's not as nasty as she likes to pretend."
"Oh, I'll take care of her."
Dark smirked, parting from her enough to look at her. "Security's probably seen you. Try to avoid your house."
She nodded. "We're all staying at Sato's apartment." Dread flickered in her expression.
"What's wrong with Satoshi's place?" the angel asked, confused.
Risa didn't meet his eyes. "Don't worry about us. Just don't do anything stupid in there."
Dark grinned. "Well, you know me. But I'll try," he calmed her warning glare.
Risa composed herself and cast him a bright smile. "See you soon!"
"Soon," he agreed, stepping reluctantly back. He spread his wings and took off with a sore, but victorious, beating of his wings. Risa watched him fly back up to the shaft they'd fallen from and disappear, back into the steel jaws of the Gorudo building.
-oOoO0OoOo—
To be Continued!
Thank you so much for your reviews, guys! You're amazing! This is where the story starts to spiral into the climax, so please let me know what you think : ). I could use all the feedback I can get to ensure the cards play out right from here on.
Love,
Kat